Improvement in stiffening hats



UNIT D STATES PATENT OFFICE- HAWLEY PARTRIOK, OF SOUTH NORWALK, ooNNEoTioUT, ASSIGNOR OF ONE-HALF HIS RIGHT TO ALDEN SOLMANS, OF. SAME PLACE.

IMPROVEMENT IN STIFFENING HATS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 219,303. dated September 2, 1879; application filed July 25, 1879.

To all whom it may concern:

Beit known that I, HAWLEY PAR'IRICK, of South Norwalk, in the county of Fairfield and State of Connecticut, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Stiffening Hats, of which the following is a specification.

In the manufacture of hats which are stiffened with an alkaline solution of shellac known as water-stiflening, it has been necessary to treat the hat, after being stiffened and dried, and before blockingit, with a solution of vitriol for the purpose of what is known as setting the stiffening. The hat is then immersed in water for several hours, in order to wash out the vitriol, which would otherwise injure the hat.

The object of my invention is to provide a stiffening which shall be self-setting, thereby dispensing with the ordinary operation of setting by a vitriol bat-h and to-this end the invention consists in a stiffening compound composed of an alkaline solution of shellac and ether.

In carrying out my invention any water stiffening composed of an alkaline solution of shellac may be used.

density for use. ThiSbOIHpOllllCliS preferably mixed in a vat or kettle heated by a steam-coil.

While the mixture is still hot, but not quite up to the boiling temperature, I add about one and one-half (1%) pints of sulphuric ether of the commercial strength, the ether being poured in while the compound is very slowly stirred, the steam being gradually shut off from'the coil as the mixing proceeds to prevent the compound from boiling over. After the ether has been all poured in, the coinstitute therefor. What I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

A hat-stiffening compound composed of an alkaline solution of shellac and ether, substantially as specified.

HAW LEY PARTRICK.

Witnesses J. D. HUNTINGTON, HENRY PHILIPsoN. 

